Delaware Bay

The Delaware Bay is an estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the Northeast seaboard of the United States. Approximately 782 square miles in area, the bay is bordered inland by the states of New Jersey (Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem Counties) and Delaware (Sussex, Kent, and New Castle Counties). The shores of the bay are largely composed of saltmarshes and mudflats, and the salt marsh wetlands bordering the bay serve as breeding grounds for a variety of aquatic species.

The bay area was originally home to the Lenape, who called it "Poutaxat", meaning "near the falls". In 1525, Spanish explorer Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon and slave trader Pedro de Quejo named the bay "Bahia de San Cristoforo", and the Dutch explorer Henry Hudson claimed it for the Dutch East India Company in 1609, calling it "Godin's Bay" after company director Samuel Godin. In 1638, Sweden established the "New Sweden" colony in the bay, but the Dutch sent troops to conquer the colony in 1655. After the English acquired the lands around the bay in 1667, they renamed the river after Lord Delaware, and the bay and the Lenape were also thenceforth known as "Delaware". In 1782, during the American Revolutionary War, the Americans defeated the Royal Navy at the Battle of Delaware Bay.